See Rock City

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Meridian Hill Park

A thirteen-basin cascade fountain is one of the most dramatic features of Meridian Hill Park

Meridian Hill Park is a structured urban park located in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Columbia Heights in the United States. The park is also unofficially known as "Malcolm X Park" by some city residents. The 12 acre (49,000 m²) formally landscaped site is maintained by the National Park Service as a part of Rock Creek Park, but is not contiguous with that much larger nearby park. Meridian Hill Park is bordered by 15th, 16th, W, and Euclid Streets NW, and sits on a prominent hill 1.5 miles (2.42 km) directly north of the White House. The park was designed and built between 1912 and 1936.

History

At the time of Washington, D.C.'s creation in 1791, the land beneath
present-day Meridian Hill Park was owned by Robert Peter, prosperous
Georgetown merchant, and was known as Peter's Hill. In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson had a geographic marker placed on this large hill. Centered exactly north of the White House, this marker helped to establish a longitudinal meridian for the city and the nation: the "White House meridian" (see Washington meridian). After the War of 1812, Commodore David Porter,
a naval hero of that war, acquired the hill in 1816 as part of a 110
acre tract of land that he had purchased; he named this property "Meridian Hill".
On the brow of this prominent hill on his new estate, and close to the
marker, Porter then built a large and famous mansion which he also named
Meridian Hill. The home faced south with a dramatic view of the White
House and the Potomac River beyond. Meridian Hill Park today shares this
view.

After the onset of the Civil War, and with a strategic location
overlooking the city, the Meridian Hill estate and mansion, along with
the land of neighboring Columbian College (founded 1821, later moving
and becoming George Washington University),
were taken for use as an army encampment named Camp Cameron. This
location was then at times referred to as being "on Georgetown Heights". Just after this wartime use ended, the mansion was badly damaged by a
fire and then later razed. With Washington experiencing a time of growth
and prosperity following the war, in 1867 the old Porter estate's land
was subdivided into smaller lots. In 1887 former Senator John Brooks Henderson and his wife, Mary Foote Henderson,
wealthy couple from Missouri, resettled in D.C. and purchased a large
number of these real estate lots. On the west side of newly extended
16th Street, John and Mary built an elaborate stone home, designed to
resemble a castle, and it indeed became known as Henderson Castle. Mary,
with many friends in Congress, had grand plans for the area and for the
hill. She proposed initially, without success, a couple of civic
projects. First were two successive plans, by architect Paul J. Pelz in 1898 and by Franklin W. Smith
in 1900, to construct a colossal presidential mansion on Meridian Hill
to replace the White House; and then next was a plan to have the site be
used for the planned Lincoln Memorial. When these did not work out, she
focused on a park. And separately, with her own money and with
architect George Oakley Totten, Jr.,
Mary planned and then built her own projects, which included a
succession of large, elaborate embassies and mansions along both 15th
and 16th Streets. These formal, well-made structures today frame
Meridian Hill Park and help create a thematic visual appearance to the
area immediately around the park.

In 1901, the Senate Park Commission (with its McMillan Plan)
undertook a set of formal changes to Washington's civic appearance,
most famously by reconfiguring the city's National Mall. The commission
also decided, with Mary's input, that a park on Meridian Hill was
appropriate, and proceeded to plan for its creation. Mary,
strong-willed, intelligent, vigorous and well-connected, very much
championed the park. Later, throughout the many years of park
construction, she lobbied Congress to maintain the flow of funding
necessary to complete the project.

The Federal Government purchased the land for the park in 1910, and began planning for its construction in 1912, with the Interior Department hiring landscape architect George Burnap to design a grand urban park modeled on parks found in European capitals. His plans were approved in early 1914, and were later modified by Horace Peaslee who took over as project architect; the design included an Italian Renaissance-style terraced fountain cascade with pools in the lower half, and gardens in a French Baroque
style in the upper half. The upper portion was later simplified
somewhat to focus on an open mall, suitable for gatherings and
performances. The well-designed and carefully made walls, fountains,
balustrades and benches were built with concrete aggregate,
a newly-developed building material consisting of a specially washed
and exposed-pebble surface set into the concrete substrate. This
construction technique for the park was created by master craftsman John Joseph Earley;
he and his team of artisans worked for years on the project. After two
decades under construction, the grounds were declared complete, given
park status, and then dedicated in 1936.

Following its completion, the
park became popular with city residents.

The upper mall area was often used for concerts and gatherings. At a political rally in 1969, activist Angela Davis proposed renaming the park "Malcolm X Park", but ultimately this name change was not approved.
And after 1970, with inner-city areas of Washington experiencing an
economic decline, the park and its neighborhood suffered some decay for a
number of years, with crime and vandalism becoming a problem. Upkeep of
the park suffered, and the park itself became somewhat unsafe after
dark, with drug dealing at times occurring there. About 1990, with civic
revitalization activity occurring locally, neighborhood residents
became more involved in the park's maintenance, and a group of citizens
formed "Friends of Meridian Hill Park". This group organized volunteer
nighttime patrols to combat crime, and lobbied the National Park Service
to make improvements to the park. Since 2005 the Park Service has been
working on a general restoration, carefully repairing and replacing the
unique concrete structures as necessary, and replacing key utility
systems. This ongoing work on the site continues today, and has resulted
in a renovated asset for the city.

The park is now a place that is well-used and enjoyed by local
residents. On Sunday afternoons during warm weather, people gather from 3
to 9 p.m. in the upper park to dance and participate in a Drum Circle.
This activity, held in the park since the 1950s, regularly attracts both
enthusiastic dancers and professional drummers.

In 1994 the park was designated a National Historic Landmark, as "an outstanding accomplishment of early 20th century Neoclassicist park design in the United States", and is today maintained as a part of Rock Creek Park..

Statues and features

Joan of Arc statue

The southern end of the park during a snowstorm

A central feature of the park is the thirteen-basin Cascading Waterfall
in the lower-level formal garden. The fountains are designed with a
recirculating water system which, through an elaborate series of pumps,
supplies water to two large circular fountains on the upper level, and
cascade found on the lower. The many walls and stairways of the site's
composition add variety to the park, and because the central structure
is on an a hillside, some of the stairways are rather dramatic. The park
also contains well-designed textured-concrete benches and urns, and
patterned-concrete walkways.
The park plan conceived by Burnap and Peaslee was one composed to
depict a formal Italian garden. The actual planting scheme was designed
by New York landscape architects Vitale, Brinckerhoff, and Geiffert. In
the past, gardens of this scope were generally reserved for aristocrats,
but Meridian Hill Park, a product of democracy, was made for all
people.

Statues

A number of finely-crafted sculptures and memorials have been placed
in the park, some even as the grounds were under construction. These
include:

Serenity by sculptor Jose Clara, dedicated to the memory of Lt. Commander William Henry Scheutze (USN); it was carved out of a solid block of white marble and dedicated in 1924.

Joan of Arc, a gift from the "Ladies of France in Exile in New York" in 1922. It is a bronze copy of a 1889 statue by Paul Dubois. The original is at the Reims Cathedral in France. In Washington, a city of many equestrian statues, this is the only one to depict a woman on horseback.

Dante, an 11 1/2 foot bronze sculpture by Ettore Ximenes.
The statute, created in 1921, stands on a pedestal of sea-green granite
and represents Italian poet Dante Alighieri dressed in the robe of a
scholar.

James Buchanan Memorial, the 15th president of the United States, sculpted by Hans Schuler. This imposing 82 foot long memorial was dedicated in 1930, and is today the only memorial to James Buchanan in Washington.